2. Abnormal Psychology:The Core Concepts
• Abnormal psychology focuses on 3 related questions.
• How to distinguish normal from abnormal behavior? (defining abnormality)
• How are abnormal behaviors categorized and diagnosed? (classifying
abnormality)
• How can abnormal behaviors be understood and changed? (explaining and
treating abnormality)
3. Defining Psychopathology
• What kind of behavior deserves to be called abnormal?
• A woman becomes seriously depressed after her husband’s death. She has
difficulty sleeping and loses her apetite. Does she have psychological
disorder, or is this just a case of normal grieving?
• A teenage girl in Africa makes cuts in her arms and face in order to produce
decorative scars. Is this pathological self-mutilation,or is it a normal
practice of the girl’s culture?
4. • Defining Psychopathology…
• In general, the concept of “mental disorder” can be defined as:
• A biomedical, culturally independent, value-free concept
• Or a social, culturally relative, value-based concept.
• Overview of definitions that will be discussed
• Mental disorder as:
• a statistical deviation
• personal discomfort
• maladaptive behavior
• norm or value violation
5. deviance
• A person has a mental disorder when his/her behavior, ability, or experience is
significantly different from a statistically calculated average.
6. discomfort
• A person has a mental disorder if they experience personal distress.
Dysfunction
• Abnormal behavior tends to interfere with daily functioning. It so upsets,
distracts or confuses its victims
• that they cannot care for themselves properly.
8. Definition of Psychopathology…
• DSM-V definition of mental disorder
• A mental disorder is a syndrome characterized by clinically significant disturbance
in an individual’s cognition, emotion regulation, or behavior that reflects a
dysfunction in the psychological, biological, or developmental processes
underlying mental functioning. Mental disorders are usually associated with
significant distress or disability in social, occupational, or other important
activities. An expectable or culturally approved response to a common stressor or
loss, such as the death of a loved one, is not a mental disorder. Socially deviant
behavior (e.g., political, religious, or sexual) and conflicts that are primarily
between the individual and society are not mental disorders unless the deviance or
conflict results from a dysfunction in the individual, as described above.
9. Biological
• genetic inheritance
• medical conditions
• brain damage
• exposure to environmental stimuli
Psychological
• traumatic life experiences
• learned associations
• distorted perceptions
• faulty ways of thinking
Sociocultural
• disturbances in intimate relationships
• problems in extended relationships
• political or social unrest
• discrimination toward one’s social
group
Causes of Abnormality
10. Biological Causes
• Possible biological causes
• Genetics
• various psychological disorders run in families (E.g. major depressive disorder)
• Disturbances in physical functioning
• Medical conditions (e.g., thyroid problem)
• Brain damage
• Ingestion of substances
• Environmental stimuli (e.g., toxins)
11. Psychological Causes
• Possible psychological causes
• Troubling life experiences
• Interpersonal – between people
• (e.g., arguments)
• Intrapsychic – within thoughts and feelings
• (e.g., irrational interpretations)
12. Socio-cultural Causes
• Socio-cultural circles of influence
• Immediate circle – people with whom we interact most locally.
• Extended circle of relationships such as family back home or friends from
high school.
• People in our environment with whom we interact minimally.
13. Biopsychosocial Perspective
• the causes of abnormality cannot be so neatly divided.There is often
considerable interaction among the three sets of influences.
• Social scientists use the term biopsychosocial to refer to the interaction in
which biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors play a role in the
development of the individual.
• The degree of influence of each of these variables differs from disorder to
disorder.
14. Biopsychosocial Perspective...
• For some disorders, such as schizophrenia, biology plays a dominant role.
• For other disorders, such as stress reactions, psychological factors
predominate.
• For other conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, that are often
associated with experiences under a terrorist regime, the cause is primarily
sociocultural.
15. Biopsychosocial Perspective...
• Diathesis-Stress Model:
• The proposal that people are born with a predisposition (or "diathesis”) that places
them at risk for developing a psychological disorder if exposed to certain
extremely stressful life experiences.
